WGC-Mexico: Checking in through the halfway point

This week’s event is halfway over, so let’s check-in at the WGC-Mexico Championship to get a handle on what has happened so far before we start this weekend’s action.

OH MY! There was so much scoring going on today, I thought it was the NBA All-Star game. We know that the ball flies farther down at the WGC-Mexico Championship, but who knew that the scores would go high as well?

In the opening round, we only had one player shoot better than 67 when Rory McIlroy shot 65 to lead the field by two shots. Friday’s round was a completely different story, as there were a lot of players that put up strong numbers.

It looked like we were going to have four people shooting at least -8 on the day. Unfortunately for Hideki Matsuyama, his luck ran out after his 15th hole. He started on the back nine and was flawless throughout the back, and through the first six holes on the front. In fact, he had made nine birdies and six pars up to that point. He would bogey the 7th and 8th holes, and finish the day at -7, still good for -9 overall where he finds himself T-4th.

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Patrick Reed started hot, and even though he teed off a bit later than the rest of today’s low scorers, it looked for sure like he would be joining them. After back-to-back pars, he ripped off four straight birdies. He cooled off a bit and was only -3 through ten holes. The green numbers came fast on the back, as he would birdie five of the next seven holes to finish -8 for the day. That round was good enough to get him to -10 and T-2nd so far in the event.

There was one other player that shot -8, and he currently leads the tournament at -11. Bryson had a slower start than you would think and made the turn off the back nine at -2 for the day. Over the next seven holes, he only made one par. The rest were birdies. It looked like he had a chance for one of those incredibly special sides. He would par-par finish and still finish with a 29 on the front.

The only man who shot better than him Friday at the WGC-Mexico Championship was Erik van Rooyen. His opening round had to be considered a disappointment, as he showed he could score with one eagle and four birdies but wasted nearly all of it with five bogeys. That would be five more bogeys than he made during the second round. Erik van Rooyen had a perfect round, finishing with nine birdies and nine pars, getting him all the way to -10 for the tournament, and T-2nd with Reed.

Seeing all of these golfers go off before Rory, you had to expect him to come out and do something similar. That wasn’t the case, and he was actually +1 on the day through 13 holes in the second round of the WGC-Mexico Championship. He would redeem himself a bit, birdieing three of the remaining holes, getting to -8 for the tournament, and is only three shots back of DeChambeau.

Tournament favorite Dustin Johnson continued to struggle Friday. He shot even and is now an insurmountable 16 shots off the lead. Unless he finishes with a 61-61 and gets lucky along the way, he is out of the tournament for all intents and purposes.

van Rooyen made one of the biggest impactful jumps on the day, as his 62 improved his standing by 12 spots. There were some players who jumped more, but they are well off the lead and not near contention. The other large impactful improvement was from Sebastion Munoz. He shot -5 and sits there overall for the tournament in a T-7th place.

On the other side, Bernd Weisberger likely wishes that he could have a mulligan on his entire day. Like van Rooyen, he shot -1 in his opening round. The difference came in the second round, as Weisberger would shoot +5, which would T-2nd worst round of the day. This dropped him 40 spots, all the way from a T-14th place down to T-54th place, and all but ending his tournament.

The one bright spot for all of the golfers who haven’t played as well as they hoped so far is that this is a no-cut event. This means that they still have two rounds to try and salvage their week, and could still put together a strong finish.

Tee times are a bit earlier Saturday than they were on Friday. Matt Kuchar headlines the group going off of the first hole at 11:18 AM Eastern. On the back nine, Scottie Scheffler headlines the group going off of the 10th hole at the same time. The leaders go off the 1st tee and it works backward from there, meaning that the low scores will be going off the back, all the way to the bottom of the standings at 1:30 PM Eastern.

Catch DeChambeau, Reed, and van Rooyen at 1:30 going off the 1st tee as the last group to tee off at the WGC-Mexico Championship.